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Circular Symbol of Something-or-other
Most popular: 1995-present A YA trope where a cover is dominated by a sigil. It has been seen a lot recently with books playing follow-the-leader after The Hunger Games, but this one has been around a long time as evidenced by Sabriel, right (published 1995 with the 'Charter Mark' symbol in place on the first (UK) edition. The features are: * Usually circular * Usually placed centrally * Usually imposed over a setting-conveying background image * Usually made to look as if it on fire or in some other dynamic and exciting state The symbol is of course usually take from the text (though is sometimes a graphic treatment of the book or series name). It's unlikely to go away soon as it's an effective way of branding a series (almost literally; some of these symbols look like they've been imprinted on the book with hot iron). We live in a very logo-literate society and a good designer can sum up much of the tone and theme of a book by crafting a series 'logo' (or series of variations on a logo) in this way. For some reason, it's particularly a feature of female-oritented YA. There may be something there about the overt branding being seen as more palatable to girls more than boys for various sociological reasons. And/or about the prominence of something overtly 'pretty' or 'jewellery-like' on a cover speaking to girl buyers more than boys. Examples: * The Divergent series by Vernoica Roth adapts the idea of ‘faction symbols’ from the text but gives them the effects whammy. It works well enough for the first two books, whose symbols feature the dynamic elements of fire and water respectively. But giving the blurry/swirly dramtic treatment to the tree symbolon the front of Insurgent looks like the Whomping Willow from Harry Potter. And the floating, flammable ferris wheel on the front of the obligatory I-just-realised-this-book-is-much-more-interesting-without-the-cypher-heroine book Four, is just plain silly. * The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: on the first book the ‘mockingjay’ pin from the text is picked up (with the added touch of having it grasp an arrow in its beak to tie into the heroine's archery skills). The movie adapted this iconic image exactly; I often wonder if the original artist gets credit or better yet money when they do this sort of thing? The book's sequels progress the mockingjay pin idea by having the birdbreak free of its circular frame and spread its wings defiantly. The symbol got the digital flames treatment, but it had to wait until the movie adaptation. Later editions perhaps aimed at a more unisex audience have kept the iconic mockingjay symbol but moved it away from the centrl/carefully illustrated treatment that defines this trope and into the off-centre/flat-neon-on-black treatment more associated with action stories marketed to boys. * The Matched trilogy by Allie Condie manages to combine this with Prom Dress In The Wild trope by placing its befrocked Faceless Girl within a colour-coordinated bubble. The sequels Crossed and Reached have our girl breaking the buble and standing free of it respectively, though she never does get to face the camera. * The Maze Runner by James Dashner invoked the 'male version' of this trope in the UK, placing the silhouette of a running figure within a circular stylised maze/target type symbol. These icons were off-set from centre, cropped off the edge of the book, and given the flat almost-neon on black aesthetic. The jackets thus cleverly invoked both of the genres in operated in - high concept dystpia a la The Hunger Games and boy-led action adventure a la Muchamore. * The original UK edition of Sabriel by Garth Nix may be the trope codifier. Published in ’95 but fitting the format perfectly, the symbol is an on-fire version of one of the ‘Charter Marks’ from the text. * Twilight by Stephanie Meyer may count as this, though its sequels probably do not. The symbol in question isn’t a digital construction of an abstract shape, and the symbol isn't floating free of context or superimposed over a setting-establishing background... But the apple is round, central and symbolic, and the image did become iconic of the franchise.